Almost a century ago, The Joinery comprised part of an industrial corridor as a mop handle factory with its sawdust collection storage silo built into the west side of the building (where it still resides today). The building transitioned into new uses, as a weather stripping factory, then later, a letter press warehouse.
A 2-ton safe hidden behind a secret door, once owned by a known affiliate of the Chicago mob, now sits as the centerpiece of a present-day speakeasy on the upper floor of the building. And in recent decades the building was owned and operated by a custom cabinetmaker (known as a ‘joiner’ or ‘joyner’), lending it the character and name it has today as an event and social space. The innovative re-purposing infuses the space with new design elements that complement the building’s preserved history.
